Saint Joseph Catholic Church

An apostolate that ministers to persons with same-sex attractions in a manner consistent with the teaching of the Church condemned the “calumny and detraction” included in the newly published Synod report on doctrinal issues.

The General Secretariat of the Synod included testimonies of two men, one from Portugal and the other from the United States, who have contracted same-sex civil marriages. The American criticized the Courage apostolate in his testimony.

Courage International responded:

Courage considers this report to be both calumny and detraction against the organization and its members. Calumny, because the report mischaracterizes Courage’s work. Courage is not nor ever has been involved in “reparative therapy,” as alleged. The working group could have clarified this point by simply contacting Courage leadership. Rather than do so, however, the report presents one person’s experience and opinion as part of an official ecclesiastical document ...

Courage has suffered calumny and detraction before, but usually from secular outlets. It is a great sadness and an additional wound to our members to have this false and unjust depiction in a Vatican document. If synod officials would like to learn more about Courage International, Inc. and its apostolate over 45 years, our chaplains and members would be happy to meet with them.

The Synod published its report three months after Pope Leo received a Courage International delegation. Following the audience, the apostolate’s executive director said that Pope Leo is “very supportive” of Courage.

Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, published a short video that shines a spotlight on the destruction of Christian villages, churches, and other Church property in southern Lebanon.

The video, entitled “Christians under attack in southern Lebanon,” was produced in conjunction with the French Catholic charity L’Œuvre d’Orient.

In an op-ed, the former general counsel of the World Jewish Congress came to Pope Leo XIV’s defense against attacks by President Donald Trump and Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weiss.

“The ad hominem attacks on Pope Leo were not just unseemly and inordinately offensive,” Menachem Rosensaft said of President Trump’s attacks. “They backfired spectacularly from a political perspective.”

Rosencraft added that “it is critically important for all of us to remember that Pope Leo is a friend to the Jewish community and to humankind as a whole. While there certainly can be disagreements among friends, we must not allow such differences of opinion, in his words, ‘to divert us’ from that friendship or from our respect and admiration for the man who has become in large measure the world’s conscience.”

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The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Pachomius of Tabenna (290-346), founder of the cenobitical life, born near Esneh, Egypt; died at Phebôou around the year 346. After spending some time with the hermit Palemon, he withdrew to Tabennisi where he introduced community life among the hermits who gathered around him. Before he died he had established nine monasteries for men and two for women. His order continued until the 11th century. Represented in hermit's garb, or crossing the Nile on the back of a crocodile.

A Kentucky judge ruled the definition of “human being” in a state law intended to protect most unborn children from abortion is void because of vagueness.

The law was challenged by a woman who feared she might be prosecuted if she participated in IVF and consented to the destruction of human embryos. The state’s attorney general issued an advisory opinion stating that IVF did not run afoul of the law; the judge stated that the advisory opinion does not have the force of law.

Pope Leo XIV today praised the work of the Italian Association for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), whose members include those who suffer from the condition, their family members, and their caregivers.

During the early afternoon audience, which took place in Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Leo thanked those who suffer from the condition for bearing “witness that the goodness and value of life are greater than illness and that, on the contrary, the very challenges that this involves can be faced together, transforming them into special and privileged opportunities to give and receive love.”

“You are present in the homes of those who are suffering,” the Pope said to caregivers. “The Church deeply values this ‘being close’: standing by people where they are, in their homes, to offer not only practical support but also spiritual accompaniment, paying particular attention to the questions of meaning that suffering raises and which cannot go unheard.”

The Pontiff added:

Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus, the Son of God made man, who passed through cities and villages “healing every disease and every infirmity” (Mt 9:35), chose in turn to live out His Passion, His Via Crucis, as a time of trial, of physical pain and spiritual suffering. He stood in solidarity with us to the very end, yet showed us, through His cross and resurrection, that pain and suffering cannot stop love or nullify the power of God (cf. Phil 2:5–11).

For this reason, all of us, children of his Pasch, are the people of hope, who do not give up in the face of difficulties, but united and in solidarity, with God’s help, continue to walk on, without ever giving up.

Pope Leo XIV received pilgrims today from Munich’s Augustiner Bräu and challenged them to care for creation as just stewards. The beer brewers were joined by representatives of the Edith-Haberland-Wagner Foundation, which supports the brewery.

Augustiner Bräu, Munich’s oldest independent brewery, was founded by Augustinian friars in 1328 but passed into other hands after the friary’s dissolution under Napoleon in 1802.

After recalling the brewery’s Augustinian heritage, Pope Leo recalled Pope Francis’s statement that “everything is, as it were, a caress of God.” Pope Leo commented:

This insight calls us to the great responsibility not only to care for creation but to ensure that its resources are always used wisely and with an eye to justice, which is a prerequisite for peace. As you return home, I therefore encourage you to continue playing your part in promoting a just and effective approach to caring for creation, both professionally and personally, for the sake of the common good.

Pope Leo XIV met this morning with the board members of the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel. The audience took place three months after the Pontiff approved revised statutes for the foundation, founded in 1984 to provide assistance to Africa’s Sahel region.

“After more than forty years of experience, the Foundation has reached a turning point characterized also by external challenges linked to multidimensional economic crises at the international level,” Pope Leo said in his French-language address. “It is in this context that the revitalization of its mission, in conformity with the regulations in force of the Holy See, has become indispensable.”

Pope Leo added:

In a world facing complex challenges such as geopolitical tensions, inequality, wars, problems related to insecurities, terrorism, political and economic instability, climate crises, the consequences of which include migratory flows, the relevance of this Foundation’s mission appears clearer than ever!

Through its main purpose, it contributes to God’s work, to the protection of the “common home,” and highlights your social responsibility. Rescuing the victims of a natural calamity or vulnerable people is indeed a question of justice before being a question of charity.